A Former Life
by Jenna McKane
Summary: "As your lawyer I advise you to sign your own divorce papers, as your wife…I'm telling you sign the damn papers, I'm done lying." I'm stunned as the words come out of her mouth, she and Deeks were married is all I can think." When a person from Deeks' past comes back what will happen between Kensi and him. DENSI
1. Chapter I

It was a normal day in OPS, well as normal as a day can be in a highly secretive federal facility. On this particular day 's team was off to a good start for the morning; Mr. Deeks and Miss Blye argued, one of them (Mr. Deeks) admitted that they were wrong in fear of bodily harm. Mr. Hanna and Mr. Callen did what they always did when the two junior agents (he's an agent even if his badge says otherwise) bicker, they sat back and waited for Miss. Blye to threaten Mr. Deeks with bodily harm or worse. After all that's said and done they all pray for an ear piercing whistle to come from so they aren't stuck doing paperwork but today I having a feeling that the whistle alerting them of a case won't be coming from either of the partners stationed in OPS. And boy was I right.

* * *

**Kensi POV**

Out of the corner of my eye I see the only person Deeks has ever said he wished he had a reason to be sorry for leaving, Catherine Fairway. He told me it went south but left it at that while also saying she's as dangerous as Callen and Hetty. Maybe that's what provoked me to pull my weapon out of its holster and point it at her or maybe it's the way she waltzed in here but whatever it is in my mind it's justified. I notice how my gun doesn't even make her flinch and I also see that Deeks has his out too pointed in the same direction as mine. Sam and Callen look utterly confused but I don't think I will have to explain if Catherine explains for us and she does and it's earth shattering.

"Austin or Marty which one should I call you?" She asks Deeks her voice calm and steady but the way she calls Deeks Austin makes me know she was a part of an undercover operation.

"Austin is on record as being dead. You know that but I don't think you want to be talking to a dead person." I notice Deeks studying the file in her hand and so does Catherine so she raises it and cocks her head to the side and says, "As your lawyer I advise you to sign your own divorce papers, as your wife…I'm telling you sign the damn papers, I'm done lying." I'm stunned as the words come out of her mouth, she and Deeks were married is all I can think.

"They'll be on your door by tomorrow but as _your_ lawyer I advise you of all people to not walk into a federal agency building just to make a point." Deeks retorted in all seriousness.

"Marty, you know me better than anyone I've ever met, why do you think I'm doing all this to prove a point?" Catherine's eyes have venom in them unlike her words; they've got the prospects of a challenge lined in them. "Well…You know very well I don't break promises so I'm not staring now. You'll find out soon enough as to why I'm here but in the meantime" Catherine walks forward right up to the barrel of Deeks' gun "why don't you put the guns down? Do you really think I'd hurt you? Do you really think I'd hurt you like you hurt me?" And just like she walked in she walked into Hetty's office like it was no big deal, like she wasn't possibly burning hundreds of undercover agents, like she knows Hetty.

* * *

Mrs. Fairway stalks out of the bullpen and straight into my office. I know why she's here but I didn't think that she would be here so soon. As for her marriage to Mr. Deeks I had no idea he was the man she loved but and I quote "hurt beyond belief, he's better off without me…" Mrs. Fairway is one of the most intelligent operatives I've met even if her methods are less than pretty but this is something I never seen coming. She is a master at keeping secrets but not at hiding her emotions, especially from me.

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**A/N: To see my update schedule check my profile. I do have the next four chapters written as I write more I will put more update times on my profile.  
****Please Review. **

**& as always Disclaimer is in affect. **


	2. Chapter II

**A/N: Kath46 This only answers a few questions I'm sure are buzzing around in your head but I promise the next chapter (up August 5th) will give you everything you want to know about Deeks and Catherine's relationship.**

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Mrs. Fairway takes her seat in the chairs on the opposite side of my desk. She looks tired, worn, beaten something an operative doesn't want to be. I know she's been thinking about this for a very long time, she said she'd never break her promise to her husband. Coming to me isn't breaking the promise but from what she's said Mr. Deeks will think that it is. I stare at Mrs. Fairway wondering what to say first but before I could continue my thoughts were interrupted, "Hetty, I know you knew this was going to happen but I need to know," her voice turned into a whisper, she look more scared than when she walked into my office. "can I trust your team?"

"Mrs. Fairway, I can't tell you who to trust but I can tell you that _I_ trust each and every one of them even your husband." I know she'll catch on to the last part and either rip me a new one or explain to me her situation. "Hetty, I trust him. That's the reason he _isn't_ dead. He knows who I am and judging by the way his partner pulled her weapon on me I'd say she knows too," She looks back at the bullpen briefly not taking it in but just glancing at everyone in it. I knew Mr. Deeks and Miss. Blye had a budding relationship but I don't know the extent of it. My employee's personal life is their own and although I know their addresses (and if they are watering their lawn properly,) I respect their privacy as much as I can. "I cannot tell you what she knows, because I don't know that. She and Mr. Deeks are close partners and friends. And I'm telling you now Mrs. Fairway, respect it he would do the same for you. "

Mrs. Fairway took in what I just said, I could see in her eyes the disappointment, as to what she was disappointed with I have enough knowledge to say that it's that I can read her. She was never happy with the fact that despite her training she could never hide her emotions from me. 'Hetty, I respect all contracts. Even if I didn't respect my own marriage contracts I do respect others," I know she's not talking about a traditionally marriage contract but the type you enter when you're in a partnership. You're married but not in a romantic way, usually you can't be. "I give you my word; I will not try to become re-involved with my husband. I promise you Hetty." Mrs. Fairway said this calmly and I knew she was telling the truth, because after this was over she wouldn't be able to be involved with Mr. Deeks or anyone for that matter. So I calmly say back to her with enough authority to let her know that pulling cowboy crap with me isn't the best plan, "Alright my dear, how is it I can help you?"

* * *

**Kensi POV**

Deeks looks frustrated and I know the only person he's going to openly talk to right now is me. No, I'm not cocky, I just know my partner. He's not going to spill his guts wide open to Sam and Callen even if his does think of them as the family he never had. So I push the lump in my throat down and say calmly but firmly, "Let's go. Firing Range." I didn't get a verbal answer just a nod of both agreement and understanding but to keep up appearances Deeks grabbed his gun and walked off to the range with me in utter silence.

I knew I was going to be the first to talk, because he was the one who just got served divorce papers by a person he describe to me as highly dangerous. But the problem is I didn't know what to say so when we reached the firing range all I could do was stand there with him in silence, staring at him awe. "Kens." He whispers to me almost inaudibly. He sounds broken and I'm scared for him but I want to know the truth. All I manage to say back though is his name, "Marty." I whisper it, because I don't trust my voice to be even. He steps closer and I can see the tears forming in eyes and that's what does it, I step closer closing the gap between us and throw my arms around him. His body shakes while he sobs into my shoulder and I can't do anything but wonder why exactly he is crying.

When he finally stops sobbing he walk us back to the wall, locking the door as he passed it. He doesn't want anyone walking in and hearing or seeing this. He slides down the wall turning me around but also pulling me with down with him. This is a side I've never seen of Deeks, he's being serious, vunerable and it scares me. 'You want answers," His voice still full of tears. "I'll give you every answer you want but you have to promise me one thing."

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**A/N: Alright I know it's a bit of a cliff hanger. If I don't state that it's someones point of view it's Hetty's, I will have her refer to characters by their formal names. (Miss. Blye,Miss, Jones etc.) And as for Catherine she's probably as bad as you think she is. **

**P.S. I need to know do you want to see Eric and Nell have a friendship or relationship?**

**Remember to check my profile for update times. **


	3. Chapter III

**A/N: This is just a vague outline of Catherine.**

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"Just tell me why Catherine has got you this worked up," I want to turn around and look at him but his arms are wrapped around me so tight. "I don't care how bad she is. That doesn't change us. We're partners for better, for worse. I give you my word." I say not knowing what I'm getting myself into. I feel Deeks tense up behind me and say in a whisper, "You have to promise me Kens that no matter what she says to you, you won't think any different of me. What happened between us isn't pretty at all."

I nod and turn into his chest taking in his scent hugging him even harder, because right now he needs a friend- a non-judgmental one at that. He returns the hug and rubs circles on my back but starts to talking "Catherine wasn't the name she introduced herself as when I met her seven years ago on one of my first LAPD undercover ops," He took a deep breath and started up again with a bit more control of the tremor in his voice. "I can't give you a lot of the details of the op but I can say she introduced herself as Lacey, Lacey Cavanaugh. She, Lacey, was a drug dealers wife but not a loyal one. Her husband at the time is now doing time for a laundry list of felonies and to my knowledge he is still in jail. I was a man named Austin Briggs a fellow drug dealer and lawyer in the area, he wasn't too bad as far as dirt bags go but he was still a dirt bag." He laughed a bit as he trailed off but I knew he was sugar coating it.

"I've only gotten close to two informants during my whole time as an undercover cop, Nicole who you've met and Catherine. I hope you and Catherine have as little contact as possible," he laughed and I couldn't help but join in. "Lacey was our informant for three years but the LAPD still couldn't get a break so they sent me in to try and get Lacey to give up her husband supplier and tell us about his next 3 deals that were to come into the area." At this point I knew exactly why he cried in my arms, his past was coming back to haunt him yet again.

"What I didn't know was that Lacey was a lawyer and a beautiful, intelligent woman," I tensed at those last words and he sensed it so he started drumming a song with his fingers on my back which surprisingly calmed me down and so did his next word. "who was also as volatile as a bomb." I laughed and said lightly "You do have a thing for the crazy ones." He laughed and started playing with my hands, I could tell what he was going to say next wasn't going to be easy so I squeezed our hands together reassuringly and he continued shyly, "The op went off as a success and I, Austin Briggs asked her out, because my boss thought that he might try to contact her again. He did but all he said was that he loved her and that she shouldn't be involved in something this dirty. So he gave her the option to divorce him and take anything she wanted. How noble." The last statement he said was laced with venom and sarcasm, a scary and unusual combination coming out of his mouth.

My current position was getting uncomfortable so I moved so that I was sitting in his lap still but with my legs over to the left side of him, essentially I was almost straddling him. His eyes showed that he wanted to make a joke about this new position but I knew he wouldn't because he was too engulfed in his story but just to make sure I gave him a stern look. He just laughed and pulled me close enough that my head could comfortably rest on his shoulder. If this were any other situation I would enjoy it a lot more than I do now but I can't. Deeks needs to know I'm going to be here no matter what he says to me.

"Lacey and Austin dated for 6 months and my boss said I was, quote 'free to do whatever I please with her, as long as it wasn't illegal.' We continued dating until one night I asked her to marry me. Austin wasn't in the drug business anymore; he moved up to gun running but I managed to keep that as well as a lot of other things a secret from her." His voice was filled with disgust and I knew the feeling but I just squeezed his hand urging him to continue. "Austin and Lacey got married a year after meeting. We lived just 20 minutes south of the LAPD prescient. I continued lying and going on operations-"

"Wasn't she the least bit suspicious?" I had to cut in; a wife doesn't get a little suspicious when her husband is gone for months at a time, not a good wife anyways. "Actually," He hesitated; he was trying to gauge my reaction to all of this. I passed, for now. "Back then my ops only lasted a few weeks at most. I was still a newbie in the division so they didn't want to risk anything by sending me on anything top priority," I nodded; I knew what it's like to be the newbie all of us do. Everyone walks on eggshells around you. "I just told her I was going away on business and her being a former drug dealer's wife, she didn't ask many question about what I was doing.

We stayed together for three years as a happily married couple, after our third anniversary something she said one say alarmed me. I don't remember what it was now but it wasn't something anyone but an agent or a cop would say. I started looking in to her; Lacey's records only went back 7 years, one year before she married the drug dealer. I called in a few favors from my buddies at the DA's office and got permission to get her looked into. She's a CIA agent liaising with the DEA, FBI, NCIS and the rest of the alphabet soup," I laughed. If she was working with all of the alphabet soup she must be older than Hetty but she didn't look any older than Deeks or I. "I wrote her a letter stating that I knew everything about her. I told her the extent I knew and I told her everything about me." He paused taking a deep breath gathering his thoughts. "I left the divorce papers signed on our bed along with the 36 page handwritten note. That was four years ago. I haven't seen her since that day." He paused and looked at me directly in the eye.


	4. Chapter IV

_"I left the divorce papers signed on our bed along with the 36 page handwritten note. That was four years ago. I haven't seen her since that day." He paused and looked at me directly in the eye. _

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**Kensi POV**

I looked back at him thinking, he did the same to Catherine thing Jack did to me. He left her but unlike Jack he had an explanation and a good one. They were lying to each other, a lot. A marriage built on lies isn't a marriage it's an op. I must have had tears in my eyes, because he brushed them away and said, "I know you must be thinking I'm a terrible person for leaving her but we were both living a lie and like she said were done with that. I don't regret leaving her, I'm just sorry I did it that way. I could have confronted her but it wouldn't have worked. We're taught to deny and that's what she would have done, she would have denied it ." I looked at him and saw his eyes pleading for me not to hate him and I don't for some reason I don't, I get what he did. I just wished there was a different way he could have done it and I know he does too. "Kens, say something." He pleads to me with a tremor in his voice. The thing is I don't know exactly what to say but I have to ask him this, "What did you make her promise, Deeks?"

He says solemnly "To never, ever contact me even if she knew where I was." He pulls me close again and whispers in my ear, "Care to shoot with me? No doubt Sam and Callen will want to hear the story but I can't do it right now." I face him and say with every bit of assurance I have in me, "They will want to know, yes but if it gets too hard on you I can help fill in the blanks with what you just told me or you can just give them the details they need." I stand up and extend my hand down to him, he accepts and says "Thank you Kens, for everything. I just hope we will be OK after all this is done." I smile, "If you're honest with me I don't see why not." We walked up to the stalls and set ourselves up agreeing we would fire off a few clips before leaving to go get lunch. He seemed a little more relaxed now and eating something would definitely put both of us in a better mood for dealing with Callen and Sam. After our last clip we admired our very precise shots and Deeks' were far better than I've ever seen from him, all tight grouping in the center masses and head. Not that he's a bad shot he's just usually a little more comically about his shooting in the range like when he stands on one leg and shoots with his left hand. But even then he's a good shot. I look at him and see that he's anxious as to what about I've got no idea, so I just say to him "Let's go you owe a doughnut, your ex-wife's appearance made me drop it in the garbage." I raise my voice to laughter at the mention of his soon to ex-wife so he knows I'm joking. "Alright Fern, let's go feed your sugar addiction." I punch his shoulder hard enough to let him know I'm joking but also to say, I really hate the name Fern, it's a plant for God sakes.

* * *

Mrs. Fairway looks at me, studying me although she knows she'll never be able to read me like I read her. "I need to finish the last case I'm working on but ever body at the DEA, CIA and FBI isn't really talking to me. They basically hate me for letting a few minor ops go south," She pauses looking at me her eyes pleading for me accept just that and I will…for now. "The drug dealer I'm trying to take down know me as Austin's wife. They met me when we were married and Austin was alive and well." Those last words send shivers down my spine, because I know all too well that it really could be Mr. Deeks six feet under right now. "We weren't friends but they knew my previous dealings and I can't deny public record."

With hearing that I say to her, "That's all I need to hear from you," Mrs. Fairway looks disappointed so I continue before she gets up and leaves. "Please go brief Miss. Jones and Mr. Beale. I'll need to see the file so I can hand it over to Mr. Callen's team." She nods and reaches into her bag and pulls out a case file. When she hands it to me I realize that this is more than a case to her it's personal. She knows what these kinds of cases can do to agents but we all do and that never stops us from having one slip through the cracks. And that exactly what she let happen.


	5. Chapter V

**Kensi POV**

We walked from the firing range to the car garage but seeing as there is only one way out and one of us needed to grab our keys we had to stop in the bullpen. When we got there Sam and Callen were in Hetty's office having a heated conversation from the looks of it, they were turned just right so I could read their lips. I think Hetty has her office set up like it is on purpose, knowing her she probably does. Deeks jingles his keys in front of me and asks, "Yours or the Malibu?" My car is in far better shape than his Malibu and less noticeable, I mean what agent buys a red car? I take his keys and put them on my desk and jingle mine in front of his face like they can hypnotize him. Deeks laughs and weakly smiles, I can tell he's thinking about what he's going to tell the team when he comes back. I grab his hand reassuringly and said "Let's go before the trouble starts." I look back at Hetty's office and he slowly nods and picks up the pace and starts walking to my car.

The ride to get lunch was uneventful and silent. I haven't seen Deeks this silent since I don't know when and I sure don't like it. But the silence stopped when we reached the restaurant, we drove to a restaurant where we have a close relationship with the owners. Mary-Jane and her husband opened the shop over 30 years ago and are just as sweet as they were then. I figured Deeks could use a comfortable calming place. "You okay?" He nods with a little more enthusiasm than when we left OPS but I still don't believe him.

When we walked up to the diner I immediately spotted Mary-Jane, an elder woman about half a foot shorter than Deeks with gray hair and a smile only someone full of life possesses. I waved to Mary-Jane while she walked over to us and said to Deeks, "Marty, it's been too long. How've you been?" Her voice always reminds me of my grandmother, she's got the same spunk she did. I smiled and thought; Deeks can charm any woman even those happily married for 40 years. "I've been better Mary-Jane but the days just starting so maybe it could change." Mary-Jane laughed but I could hear the hopefulness and doubt laced in his voice. Mary-Jane started escorting us to the back of the diner to a table with the view of the whole place. "The worst seat in house to everybody but you two, I still don't get it after all this time. But make sure to enjoy your meals, my dear." She faces Deeks "I hope your day gets better Marty." We both smiled and laughed lightly and walked Mary-Jane walk away to continue working.

About five minutes later a man about 25 years old, dark hair, blue eyes at least 5 foot 11 walked over to us to take our order, "Mary-Jane speaks highly about the two of you. I'm Jackson, what would you like to have." I ordered the same thing I always do, a cheeseburger with extra cheese, a chocolate milk shake and an extra-large fry to split between the two of us. Deeks ordered a turkey burger and a vanilla milkshake. We talked about absolutely nothing for the next 15 minutes while waiting for our food to come; I could see that he was still shaken up. I saw Jackson walk up to us with our food, I smiled and thanked him. Jackson smiled a weak smile but continued working.

Thirty minutes later and we were almost done with our lunch but I could see in Deeks' eyes that he didn't want to go back just yet so I called over Jackson and motioned him to come closer so I could whisper in his ear and say, "Bring us a piece of cherry pie, extra whipped cream. Two forks." He walked away and took another order then headed toward kitchen. I look back from watching Jackson perform the small task to see Deeks' giving me a mischievous grin, he knew I was up to something as to what he didn't know and I Bad Ass Blye like to keep Shaggy on his toes but so does he so the next word out of his mouth really shouldn't surprise me but they do anyways, "Trying to get with a younger man, Kens?" I almost choked on the milkshake I was drinking, sure Jackson was cute but I prefer surfers who can shoot standing on one leg. Apparently Deeks got the reaction he wanted, because he's laughing so hard he can't breathe and just to make sure he know I'm not going soft on him I reach over the table and punch his left shoulder, the same one I punched earlier when he called me Fern. Oh, yes he is going to have one nice bruise on that arm. He stops laughing and rubs his arm realizing that he is so going to have a bright purple bruise there later. I snicker out loud but I honestly do feel bad for hitting him that hard a second time in one day.

Jackson walks back to our table with a large piece of pie with a lot of whipped cream and sets it down with the two forks and smiles politely at me and then Deeks. I picked up the two forks and handed one to Deeks and said "Dig in." He chuckled and started eating around the whipped cream. I giggle and look at him and take the whipped cream on my spoon and stick in my mouth and moaned dramatically. Deeks just shakes his head and says, "Keep eating like that and your size 2 jeans won't be baggy anymore." I throw the piece of pie on my fork at him and scoff.

We finished our dessert and paid he walked to the car and tugged on my hand, I thought he wanted my keys so I gave them to him but he takes my keys and my hand interlocking our fingers walking back to my SRX. Confused as to why he took my hand I just squeeze our together hoping that he will catch on to what I'm asking all he does is cock his head to my SRX silently saying he will explain then. I opened the passenger side door and got in closing the door waiting for him to explain and all he says is, "I needed to know you would be blindly there for me. This is going to get bad and fast, Kens." He silently starts the car and drives down the street back towards OPS. I grab his right hand which is resting on the center console interlock it with mine letting him know I trust him more than anyone in this world or under it.

* * *

He pulls into the parking garage and shuts off the SRX not moving from our current position I look at him and tell him, "We're your family, we don't judge. At the end of the day we all love you." Hoping he doesn't catch on to last part but Deeks has never failed me so why start now? He looks at me and says, "You love me? Fern, I knew you could resist me." I scoff and realize that I can't look at him while I say this, because it's the biggest lie I've ever told, "As family Deeks. Family." What I don't say is that we're partners, we shouldn't love each other but I know I'm already in way too deep. We both nod and take a deep breath before letting go of each other's hand and stepping out of the SRX.

When we walk into OPS its silent, everybody's staring at us but I just pull his sleeve and tug him upstairs into OPS center where I know the rest of the team and possibly Catherine will be waiting. He sighs heavily and walks with me right in step. The doors of the OPS center open and just as I suspected Sam, Callen, Eric, Nell, Hetty and Catherine are standing there waiting for us. I take my spot next to Deeks on the right side of the table and wait for someone to speak. Sam and Callen give us a skeptical look but I ignore it, the time will come for all to tell.

Hetty takes center stage in front of us and begins to speak, "Mrs. Fairway here," she pointed to Catherine who at the moment was signing to Eric. She's got blonde waist length hair pulled into a braid, she's shorter than me and she got a few visible tattoos and I also see she's harboring a half sleeve. "Has requested my help in catching a very dangerous drug dealer in the area." Callen straightens up and says, "Aren't the all very dangerous? What's so special about this one? Is there a Navy connection?" Callen looks pissed that Catherine just waltzed in here and Hetty's giving her the red carpet treatment. This time it's not Hetty who speaks its Catherine herself, "No Mr. Callen but there is a conflict of interest with this agency," She paused. "I'm a liaison with-"She was cut off by Deeks this time venom in his voice, "DEA, NCIS, FBI and the rest of the alphabet soup. You're a CIA agent with rating higher than Callen's the only difference is yours can't be on record, because you were 16 when they recruited you." I stare at Catherine with in awe and disgust. In awe that she beat Callen at every rating, I've never seen a person living who could do that except for maybe Hetty. I'm disgusted that she was 16 when she was recruited; didn't her parents figure out that their daughter was training to be one of the world's deadliest people? Deeks continues, "The only agency that you have good standings with is this one Cath. That is why you walked in here this morning-"

"Deeks," I cut in. I look at Catherine and say with the same amount of venom Deeks used, "Brief Sam and Callen alone." I change my focus to Deeks and let my eyes soften to show that I'm doing this because I am on his side. "I will read the file with you and be briefed that way OK?" I look at Hetty with pleading eyes hoping that she sees that Deeks is about to burst and she does. Hetty nods and says "Mr. Deeks, you and your partner can use Mr. Getz's office. Shut the door." I nod and tug at Deeks' shirt for the second time today. He follows me nodding at Hetty with a small smile of appreciation.

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**A/N: Next you'll get to see Catherine and Callen interact. I must say it's fun. And for the beginning of the chapter when they go out to lunch here is where that came from. My dad a former LEO said to me: "When something's personal you leave, usually with your partner. You go someplace you know to clear your head whatever it be the firing range, a restaurant, a strip club whatever. You don't come back until your head is in the game and almost all your feelings are set aside, because it is in fact personal and some feelings will be there no matter what you do." **


	6. Chapter VI

**Callen POV**

As the team leader I'm curious as to who this Catherine girl is. When Hetty told us she was here to work with her and us by extension I wondered why she was asking Hetty. Leave it up to Deeks to answer all my burning questions. Sam looks at me silently urging me to talk to Catherine so I say, "I'm not really sure if I should say sorry about Deeks' behavior or not. He's got every right to be mad at you right now as far as I'm concerned."

Catherine looks amused and replies with a smile, "Do you know what happened between us? " I shake my head and she continues. "I met him while working as a liaison with the DEA. I was in a deep undercover operation trying to stop a drug dealer from expanding. I wasn't tasked with taking him down just stabilizing him. I did and during that time I, my cover Lacey Cavanaugh became an LAPD informant." She looks at the screen briefly but continues. "After three years of being an informant and being a trophy wife to a drug dealer, I made my move. I wanted out. I gave the LAPD the next three dates of shipments and my husband or Lacey's first husband was sent off to jail. He's still there now." She stops and takes a deep breath and it looks as if she's bracing herself for what she's about to say.

"After the op was done I was going to take three months of unused vacation time. Being undercover for three plus years made it hard to take vacation without my drug dealing husband becoming suspicious so I didn't," She stops short putting her hands on the back of Eric's chair, he doesn't seem to be alarmed to any of this and neither does Nell. But that's probably because they were already briefed. "I didn't take any vacation ever. The night the op was over Marty's cover, Austin Briggs asked me out. We dated for six months got married a few months later. We stayed together for almost four years. Our marriage was like a fairy tale to me, He didn't ask questions and I felt safe until one day I came home to find out he was a better liar than I was." She stopped and Eric squeezed her hand like he's known her for years. "He told me everything he knew in a letter and left the divorce paper underneather the letter with a sticky note that said to never, ever contact me even if I knew where he was. I never broke it until this morning, I had stayed away for four years. But this case is not pretty and I need help. Please." She looked like a hopeless little girl and I know for a fact that someone who goes on deep undercover operations like that is not hopeless so the next word out of my mouth are, "Brief us, Agent Fairway. We can't help you if we don't know what's going on." She nods and the way she looks at me proves what I've been suspecting this whole time she's hiding something. Maybe, I'll figure it out when I have a talk with Deeks.

"The dealer we are looking for is named Rico Vargas. He used to be a friend of my first husband. He's been dealing since he was 16 and now he's escalated to providing money to terrorist." She stopped and looked at Eric who jumped up putting his tablet on the table and started signing and talking simultaneously. "He's been drug running since he was 16, he uncle is the go-to man for guns. Well at least he used to be before he was shot seven times in the chest. After his uncles death he did everything he could to get revenge on the killer. He even blew up the man's house," Eric paused and grabbed his tablet to pull up pictures Nell didn't have on hers and he put the on the big screen. "After having no luck he stopped trying to kill the man himself and went after the whole crew the man was with. Three months later the only person left standing was Vargas." Eric handed his tablet to Nell who took over and Eric continued to sign.

"Vargas started sending money to terrorists and terrorist group 18 months ago. He started small with just a few Al Qaeda insurgents and is now providing money to militant groups in Iraq." She paused, waiting for Eric to catch up and when he did she started again. "Right now, what Catherine wants us to help her do is to track him down. " With that Catherine interjected. And all I could think is this is going to be a wild goose chase. "He's in L.A. looking for Austin and Lacey Briggs but he's only going to find a fully furnished apartment left the way it was four years ago and Lacey Briggs. Austin died, that's the cover Deeks made to cover up his leaving and if you ask me it works pretty well under these circumstances. We are to find Vargas and stop his next transfer."

"Ok Catherine, Agent Fairway I won't be taking orders from you. This is my turf, got it? But otherwise my team and I will be happy to help. I'm going to find Deeks and Kensi to see if they're done. You are to do whatever Nell and Eric need you to**.**" With that I walked off down towards Nate's office. He was due back in three weeks for a short rotation but he wouldn't mind us using his office momentarily. I knocked and when I got a grunt from Kensi I walked in. I sat in the only unoccupied chair beside the one at Nate's desk, it was across from a couch that Kensi and Deeks were sitting on. The chair opposite mine was filled with the case file, both Kensi and Deeks looked unhappy about Catherine being here. But I want to make it clear as to what we are doing, "Deeks, you don't have to do this. You can sit out." Deeks stares at me for a moment but when Kensi put her hand on top of his he finally speaks, "No, I'm fine. I'll deal with her being her just don't expect me to talk to her a lot." I sighed; oh this is another Tracey incident.

"You are not to go anyplace where someone might recognize you as Austin Briggs. Dead men don't walk." I chuckle with my last statement but Deeks just looks at me and says, "I haven't been anyplace someone might recognize me as a dead man in over four years. I've been doing this long enough to know that'd be stupid and I'd get myself killed for real." As soon as he mentions that I remember pulling him of the Ortega op and when he got shot. "You only get so many close calls I say." He nods. Kensi has been too quiet though this whole discussion, either she has no opinion or she knows better than to share it with me. I'm going with the latter. With that all done I get up and say, "Sam and I are going to go talk to Lacey and Austin's neighbors. You two will go see if you can find where Vargas is." They nod and I leave Nate's office shutting the door behind me.

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**A/N: Anybody catch what Eric was doing? **


	7. Chapter VII

**Kensi** **POV**

"Deeks," I say with concern. "Is there something you're not telling me?" I can't place the look on his face but I know it must be serious. "Yeah, one little detail I left out." I look at him confused and he continues. "Catherine's known for blowing ops because she has to go in blind. Well kinda. She knows her stuff, knows what to do if all hell breaks loose but-"

"But what? Is she going to get one of us killed?" He stops looks at me with and says "Probably not but then again we can be killed jogging in the morning," I flinch as I realize he's referring to when he was being shot after jogging one morning. "Shedoesn'tusecoms." He whispers fast and it takes me a second to register what he's said but when I do I freak, "WHAT? WHY THE HELL NOT?" If she doesn't use coms she's likely to get killed, she won't know about the people in the area, where the bad guys are. She'll know nothing.

"I never got the full story," Deeks starts signing for a second and then looks at me and continues. "Ever watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith?" I'm confused but I'm sure this is going someplace so I answer "Yeah but what does married assassins have to do with this?" He chuckles softly, "They don't, well not the married assassins part. Remember after they destroyed their house Mr. Smith asks Jane why she didn't hear him come to their anniversary dinner in a copter?" I look at him obviously still confused but he just continues on, "Yeah, percussion grenades. She was deaf that night." Explosions will do that to a person. The rupturing of the ear drum is actually what makes you deaf. Usually it's temporary but go through enough of them and sooner or later you won't hear any more.

"Same type of thing happened to her," He pauses; his eyes show he's sorry this happened to her. "Except hers rendered her permanently deaf. Most agencies don't know so she usually fake's it." He looks at me and says comically, "She's convincing right?" I nod, that's all I can do. This is shocking to say the least she's deaf and if she's still working she must be a pretty good lip-reader, even better than me. "Why doesn't she stop being a field agent then? She's supposed to be desk locked." I ask "If every agency didn't think she was a valuable asset she would be." I take everything he's just said. I've got millions of questions most that I can't vocalize about this whole situation. _Will she get one of us killed? Is she smart enough to know when to pull out? Is Deeks still in love with her? When will he sign the divorce papers? Why does he have to sign the papers if Austin Briggs is dead? _The one I do say out loud is more of statement but I know Deeks will see it as a question, "She taught you how to sign?" I wonder if I should say the next part, because he might be angry enough not to answer but I still say it. "I've seen your file; it doesn't say what your language skills are so I just assumed you had none?" He looks peeved but not enough to not answer, "Three fluently, four enough to get by without making a fool of myself and I can sign in Latin, French and English." He looks at me his eyes filled with disappointment. He's disappointed I thought he wasn't multi-lingual, he's disappointed I think of him like he's got just the bare-minimum but I know he doesn't he's a great agent. He could easily be one of us and with that shooting earlier I'm afraid to know what else he packs. "I didn't know." I put my hand on his shoulder squeezing it to let him know I am truly sorry I ever had doubt.

He looks down at the file picks it up and hands it to me. I take it and notice he's not asking me to read it he's asking me to hold it so I nod and he starts talking and signing, "Vargas landed in LA 3 days ago, his safe house is in an area Callen has banned me to go."

"The file didn't say where his safe house is, it says where a former safe house is. Do you really think he'd be using that one?" He nod and opens the file to page 16 and shows me the latest surveillance pictures, "These are in the alley next to that safe house. Austin spent some time there six years ago, the alleys to the west side of the house. He goes out and takes calls, smokes and I'm pretty sure he gets high back there too."

"Ok," I nod and ask "Addicted? Marijuana?" He pauses and looks at the file before continuing. "Yeah and just about every other substance you can get addicted to." I scoff in disgust. Some people really need a hobby. "Any way I could get you to stay in the car while we do our own surveillance?" I know the answer but asking just seems right. "Kens, I'd have to lie down in the back of your SRX and even then it's likely I'd be seen, the safe house is in a populated area. We're going to have to send Sam and Callen or you can go with Catherine."

"I'll call G; I don't think I'd last ten minutes with Catherine." Deeks chuckles and hands me my phone that was sitting on Nate's coffee table. I dial Callen's number and G picks up and says "_What'd you get? You're on speaker." _

"Deeks got us a lead on Vargas' Safe house but we can't go there. It's in an area Austin used to be known in." I hear Deeks mutter so I look at him and he repeats himself, "3 blocks west and I would have been safe." Callen's the next to talk, "I_t's __Ok send us the address. Everybody around the Briggs' residence said that Lacey hasn't talked to drug dealers since Austin died." _Sam picks up next and says, "_Everyone we talked to also said that a man fitting Vargas description had paid a visit to Lacey two days ago. Have Eric look to see if there are any cameras in the area so he can make a positive ID." _

I look at Deeks and say "Go tell Eric but call Nell first and make sure Catherine's not there. Hetty would hate to clean up blood off the floor of the OPS Center, you almost chewed her head off earlier." All three men chuckle and Deeks walks away to make the call to Nell and I take this as a time to talk to Callen "G, take me off speakerphone."

I use his first name hoping that he'll realize that what I'm about to say isn't case related. _"What's up Kens?"_ I look back to make sure Deeks is far enough away so he won't hear me. "Am I off speaker?" I'll be more than peeved if Sam hears this. He'd never let it go. _"Kens? What's wrong?"_ Sometimes I wish he wasn't such a big brother. "I'm fine. Take me off of speaker now." I say leaving the silent "or else" hang in the air. _"Kens, calm down your scaring me." _I scoff and he amends _"More than usual. What's on your mind?"_ The honest answer would be the blonde surfer 75 yards behind me on the phone having a heated conversation with Nell but I'm not telling him that just yet, "I need an opinion and you've been here before." Callen hums confusedly, _"I'm not following. Where have I been?" _I roll my eyes dramatically and say "Callen you've been in Deeks' shoes before. You married Tracy Keller. You got too close." I stopped hoping he figured out where this is going and wouldn't kill me for bringing Tracey up. _"Kens, it's personal to him, it's personal. It'll be hell for him and he'll need his partner, his best friend." _ I almost crack a joke about Ray being his best friend and how he's in Witness Protection now and he can't be here or contact Deeks. I don't though, because Ray stopped being just Deeks' best friend when he made him an informant. And I became it soon after he started at NCIS. "Yeah G, I know. I gotta go." I say rushed seeing Deeks done with his call to Nell. "Call us if the safe house turns up anything." I hang up before Callen can say anything else. Deeks walks over to me with a childish smile, his famous one. I find that his smiles are one my favorite things about him, I can tell more about his mood from his smile than if I interrogated him for 24 hours straight. His smiles are always genuine even if his words aren't. "What'd you do?" That smile means one of two things, a) he's got a reaction he wanted or b) he did something that would have Callen ripping him a new one after he stopped laughing. His smile widens as he says the next words, "Nell said Catherine's not in OPS. She and Eric had to kick her out of there after she kept telling them they were going about their jobs wrong." We rolled our eyes and Deeks grabbed my hand and tugged me toward OPS and when I realize he's about to let go I interlock our hands. He looks at me and smiles and I shake my head with a smile matching his.

* * *

**A/N: ****When Deeks is signing to Kensi while telling her about the safe house he's getting her used to be around signing. My friends and I do this whenever we're around people who sign and those who don't. I find it makes them less uncomfortable.**


	8. Chapter VIII

**A/N: Translations are at the bottom. Sectioned by Language. **

**And to the Guest reviewer who pointed out that Deeks isn't multi-lingual, Yes I know but as you said I've taken creative liberties. **

* * *

**Kensi POV**

OPS was silent but Nell and Eric were talking, signing and I'm assuming about the security footage. I cock my head toward them and give him a questioning look but Deeks just walks up to the techy duo and starts signing. I can't follow the conversation but then again I don't know how to sign anything at all. Deeks looks at me and motions me to come over to where he, Nell and Eric are standing. I walk over and Deeks signs to Nell and Eric signs back and then Deeks points to the doors of OPS and Nell shakes he head and grabs her tablet and shows Deeks footage of the boatshed. It's of Catherine she's reading one of Callen's Russian books and from the look on Deeks face he doesn't seem surprised. Nell and Eric both sign the same thing to Deeks and he laughs but signs back and Nell looks at me then starts to sign and Deeks just shakes his head in a laughing manner.

Deeks then walks around the techy duo and out the door back to Nate's office. I follow him back and as soon as I reach his office I say "You know…it's not polite to talk about other people in another language." He laughs and says "Wasn't talking about you. Nell just asked if you could understand anything we'd just said and I told her the truth, you're clueless at signing. You wouldn't know 'good' from 'bad'." I laugh. He's right I wouldn't but I want to so I say, "Can you teach me?"

"Good from bad, Kens, you're in the wrong profession if you don't know that already." I laugh but punch him in his right shoulder. "No, I mean can you teach me how to sign?" I have butterflies in my stomach, I really want this, I don't know why but I do. "Sure." He pauses and raises his right hand and puts his pointer finger straight up, his middle finger at an angle and he said "This is a 'k'." He moved his hands so his thumb was across his palm and his fingers bent over at the middle knuckle. "And this is an 'e'." I watch him move his hands into fist with his thumb in between his middle and ring finger. "This is an 'n'." He moves his hand so it's in a fist with his thumb over all his fingers. "This is an 's'." To finish my name he just puts his pinky up and says "And this Kensi is an 'I'," He pauses looking at me with a smile on his face one I return easily. "Now you know how to sign your first name. You won't impress many people but you can at least tell them who you are." I laughed but look at him in all seriousness and say "If Eric can teach Nell and she's as good as you two are you can teach me." He looks at me and signs an 'o' and a 'k'. I smile and he says, "It'll take time, Nell pushed to learn. She and Eric skipped 7 or 8 Saturday morning surfs to do signing lessons." I nod and say, "I want to learn. I want to sign." He nods and says "After this is over, I'll teach you." We were both startled by Deeks' phone ringing and he mouthed Callen to me and I said "Put it on speaker." He nodded and did just that.

"Yeah Callen, we're here." I see Deeks slip back into his professional suit. _"Where is Catherine?" _Callen asks with worry in his voice. "Boatshed reading. Why?" Deeks seems confused and so am I. What could they have possibly have seen from their car watching the safe house? _"Is anyone with her?"_

"No, Nell and Eric sent her there after she kept getting in the way. They have the security cameras up in OPS and are watching it."

"_Have Eric video conference the boatshed." _I look at Deeks and ask "Does he know she's-" Deeks cut me off by shaking his head. "Callen why a video conference not a phone call?" I ask. _"We need her to ID a man. He's been asking for Lacey saying he knew her." _Deeks stepped back and connected to OPS asking Eric to get Lacey's attention in the boat shed. "Agent Callen, what can I do for you? Nice book by the way." She says holding up the Russian book she was reading when we were in ops. Callen laughs and says "Can you ID this man for us?" A picture pops up on the screen and Catherine says, "Yeah he's Michael Vargas. He's Rico's cousin and his right hand man, almost as dangerous as Rico." Callen looks curious about something and until I see Deeks signing next to me do I know what it is but he doesn't say a thing just asks, "Anything else I need to know?" Catherine shakes her head and signs off and so does Deeks.

"Why didn't you tell Callen? You should tell Callen. You have to tell Callen." If Catherine's deaf she's going to need extra protection when we apprehend Vargas otherwise she's likely to get herself killed. "She knows what she's doing. She's never gotten somebody killed during an op and she used to go in dark before her deafness. She knows what she's doing. It'll scare the crap out of Eric, Nell and Callen but trust me she knows what she's doing." He walks up to me putting his hands on my shoulders and says "Everything well turn out fine. None of us will get hurt. And as for Callen knowing, Catherine has to tell him herself. That's what I was signing during the video conference."

"And how's she gonna do that. Callen and Catherine are probably the best liars this side of the Mississippi." Deeks chuckles and says, "I told her they'd be back soon so she should come back here and wait for them in the bullpen," he pauses and motions me to sit down on the couch. I walk over and sit down. "Catherine's told people before, it takes them a minute to put the pieces together but they're all there."

"It's not in her file so they might have a hard time believing it." Deeks looks at me and signs something then says, "Não confie em tudo que você lê querida."

"Português, Quaisquer outras que eu sei?" I slip into Portuguese and he just smiles. He looks at me and takes a step forward and whispers in my ear. "Fluent in three, two of which you know. I told you that earlier." I smirk and turn my head to look at him. I answer in French, "Tu Parles français? Ou est-ce que tu parles espagnol?"

"La Fois. Je ne suis pas couramment le portugais." I look at him confused; the Portuguese he just spoke to me with was nearly perfect.

He smirks and backs away heading toward the railing outside of OPS. He looks down to the bullpen and I follow suit. Catherine's there reading a different book I can't see the title so I ask "What's she reading?" The books got a burnt orange cover and gold foil printing on it. The lights are hitting it just right so all I see is a glare. "Jako zabít ptáčka or To Kill a Mocking Bird in Czech." I didn't even know we had that book lying around here, it's probably either Hetty's or Callen's they're the only people in OPS who can understand Czech. At least last I check. I think I'll check again, "Do you speak Czech?" He shakes his head and says "No but Catherine does," I look at him puzzled but he just continues "She's like Callen in more ways than one. Her nightmares stop her from sleeping and if she sleeps it's for less than two hours at a time. When she can't sleep she practices languages from Russian to Yiddish, she cleans the whole apartment, rearranges it and then put it back. And if you want to sleep you'll have to either learn to sleep through it or figure out ways to help her." He shakes his head and says "The later was more common. All I know in Czech is how to ask where things are, the names of half a dozen books and survival words."

I see Callen and Sam walk in so I start walking down the stairs to the bullpen. Catherine looks up from the book and looks at Callen who says "Jako zabít ptáčka? Je to jednodušší podruhé. I v českém." Deeks chuckles and Callen looks at him but its Catherine who speaks next, "Nebo šedesát pupate, ale kdo by to počítal." Callen smiles and says "I've only met bad guys who speak Czech." He looks back at Sam and smirks then turns back to Catherine and says "It's nice to meet someone who is on our side who can speak it too." Catherine nods and puts the book down on Callen's desk and says "What'd you find out from Michael?" Sam shuffles up to the screen in the bullpen and says "Michael says he hasn't seen Rico for two days. A day after he landed in L.A." Callen picks up and says "Michael says the LAPD is watching the safe house so he can't leave until he knows it's clear."

Deeks' head shoots up at the mentioning of LAPD and he says, "Three weeks ago I was told by some less than friendly cops that the LAPD wanted to take down a gun runner in Briggs' area. I was told to stay away from the precinct and Briggs' area." Deeks looks agitated so I ask, "Why do you need to go to the precinct? Hetty has all you liaison paperwork sent here." Everyone's eyes shoot to Deeks, he just answers calmly, "Bates feels it's necessary for me to check in every so often. He says that he has to make sure Hetty hasn't convinced me to leave." He leaves the silent yet hanging in the air. Everyone here knows Hetty didn't want or need a liaison. She wants Deeks as an agent; she wants him to officially be one of us. I do too, I don't want him to go on another undercover assignment without me and there's no way Bates would agree to sending me in with him. We've tried, many times. He says that I would be a distraction to Deeks. That he wouldn't be able to get the job done. That's utter bull. He does perfectly fin around here when I'm by his side. He does better here than he's ever done at LAPD. I look at Callen and see that he's thinking the same thing I am so I nod and he says "You're going to go to the precinct and talk to whoever is watching Vargas and pull them off."

I grab my keys and Catherine looks at Callen and he nods. I roll my eyes, Catherine's coming with us. Great. It's bad enough all of the LAPD hates Deeks, bringing her along will only make this worse "When we go outside don't get in the car until I say so, alright?" I turn around toward the parking garage and jog a bit to catch up with Deeks and say, "Do you know the person who's watching Vargas?" He nods "We've worked together a few times before. His opinion of me is less than stellar so I doubt I'll get anywhere." And with that we walk toward my car in silence for the second time today.

* * *

_Translations:_

_Pourtugeuse:_

_"Não confie em tudo que você lê querida" Do not trust everything you read darling_

_"Português,Quaisquer outras que eu sei?" Portuguese, any other ones I know?_

_French:_

_"Tu Parles français? Ou est-ce que tu parles espagnol?" You speak French? Or do you speak Spanish?_

_"La Fois**. **Je ne suis pas couramment le portugais" Both. I'm not fluent in Portuguese. _

_Czech:_

_Jako zabít ptáčka. To Kill a Mocking Bird._

_"Jako zabít ptáčka? Je to lepší, podruhé, I v českém." To Kill a Mocking bird? It's better the second time even in Czech._I don't speak Pourtugeuse or Czech so I used a translator and quadruple checked to make sure it translated properly. I do speak French so those should be right.

**A/N: I love Eric and Nell spending time together outside of work. Actually I love any of them spending time together outside of work, it's cute. I got a few "Why didn't Deeks get mad at Kensi for reading his file?"s Here's my answer; you can't get mad at somebody for something you've done. (Also a little teaser.) **

**Remember reviews are like cookies. **


	9. Chapter IX

**KENSI POV**

The LAPD precinct always gives me the shivers, I'm not sure why. It's a police building with armed police in it, I shouldn't get the shivers. Even if there are a few more dirty cops than I'd care to see in an entire life time. Deeks has never spoken highly of the LAPD or the officers inside so I think that's where my opinion of them comes from.

The precinct is quiet as soon as Deeks, Catherine and I step inside. The only sounds are whispers of fake cop, failure, loser, whimpy cop and he's just here to play dress up from Deeks' supposed LAPD buddies. I touch his shoulder to ask why they're saying that but I'm interrupted by a cocky officer who says, "I wouldn't do that pretty lady." Deeks stops as soon as the first word comes out of the officer's mouth dropping his hand to my waist pulling me closer to him. I turn myself into him and ask the officer "And what shouldn't I do?" The officer scoffs and says "If I have to tell you, you're already in too deep." Well that's an understatement but I have a feeling we aren't talking about the same thing. I go to say something but Deeks tugs on my waist spinning me toward him he bends his head down to my ear and whispers "Don't. It's not worth it." I nod not happy with his request but respect it.

Deeks walks us over to the elevator and pushes the button to call the car. When it dings he pulls me in and pulls something out of his coat and hand it to Catherine. It's a visitor's pass but not the usual one; hers has an informant tag and the words Level 6 Undercover in bright red block letters. Catherine takes it and put it on hitting the two buttons one for the basement and one for the seventh. I look at Deeks and he says "Catherine's still known here as Lucy. She's officially here to speak with her handler; she'll meet up with us after she's done with him." I nod and wait for the elevator to ding. When it does I look up to Deeks who is still holding onto my waist and he shakes his head while Catherine is stepping out.

As the door closed I expected Deeks to let go of my waist but he doesn't, he pulls me closer and holds me tighter. I look up at him with worried filled eyes hoping for an explanation but he doesn't say a thing just looks at me with equally worried filled eyes. The elevator stopped on the fourth floor to let someone on, the detective holding me tensed at the sight of the other detective. His hands are holding me tight enough to leave a bruise if I wasn't a federal agent. Deeks pulled me closer and buried his face in my hair. The other detective smirked and Deeks whispered to me "Move to my right side. Casually." I looked up at him confused but did what he said and changed my position. Deeks' grip on my waist didn't let up but he started drawing on my waist with his fingers. When the elevator stopped the other detective looked at Deeks and said "Don't get her killed too."

"What is this about? Why is everyone treating you like you've got the plague?" Deeks looks down, his eyes meeting mine. His voice full of sorrow and something else that sound foreign rolling of his tongue, "There's a reason they all hate me, one too long to tell in an elevator ride." I nod at turn myself back into his chest. He rubs my back and waits for the elevator to stop on the seventh floor. When it does his breath hitches and he pauses but I step forward motioning him to come along.

As we step off the elevator we're greeted by silence and murmurs, just like when we walked into the precinct. Deeks looks at me; his eyes show more emotion than they did when we were in the elevator. He goes to speak but I can't let him, I'm not sure why but I grab his hand and put it to my lips and kiss it. He looks at me with a smile on his face matching the one on mine. The cops around us have all their eyes glued to us like we're the main attraction at a show. Together we walk down the hall to the office at the end on the right. Deeks walks in not bothering to knock, the detective sitting at his desk just looks up at Deeks and says "Well if it isn't the wannabee fed?"

"Who's doing surveillance on Rico Vargas?" Deeks asks the detective looks at me and says, "She's not cleared to hear it." Deeks scoffs and says, "Her security clearance is higher than the captains, so is mine for that matter. So she is cleared for it and so am I. Answer the question, who's doing surveillance on Vargas?" The detective looks down at the file in his hands then looks back up to Deeks and says, "You need to see Theo Lockhart. He's a newbie so you shouldn't have many problems with him." Deeks nods his head and turns around to walk out but the detective says "We've got a bet on you Deeks and I'd like to collect." I wonder why they're betting on Deeks if he's never here but I'm not going to find out anytime soon, because Deeks just says "Well you're not getting rich tonight." With that Deeks grabs my hand and walks out of his office toward the bullpen.

The bullpen looks more like a space for cubicle monkeys to work than cops. I wonder how long Deeks was playing cubicle monkey before becoming an undercover operator. I go to ask Deeks but he raises his voice and says, "Theo Lockhart? My office, 2 minutes." I look at Deeks and ask, "You've got an office?" he nods and pulls me down a dark hallway and says "These offices belong to the higher level undercover cops. All of them are either on assignment or handling." I look at him and ask, "Which one's yours?" He points to the one all the way on the end. I walk up to it and jiggle the handle, it's locked. Deeks steps up behind me putting his arm through the empty space between my elbow and hip. I look up at him and he just smirks back. When the door is opened I walk in looking around. They're at least six book cases filled with books, a sofa, a desk that makes ours at OPS seem like the holy grail and three chairs; one behind the desk two in front. I walk over to the bookshelf and ask, "Law books?" He nods and walks up behind me changing my position, to one of the other book cases and says, "You would like those better." I walk over to them and realize that they're not books but holding containers I open one of them and see pictures that he's collected over the years he walks up behind me again and pulls out a navy blue container and says, "These," he points to all the navy blue ones. There are more Navy blue than any other color. "Are my favorite. I think you'll like them too." I turn around and look at them; they're of us, the team. He's got so many; most I didn't even know he had taken. I flip through them and find one of the two of us on the beach smiling and laughing; I look up at him and say "I love this one."

"So do I, Actually the original is in my house. It's one of three personal pictures there." I smile and go to say something witty but there's a knock at his door. Deeks doesn't go to answer it just says "It's open." Theo walks in looks around and walks to the chairs in front of Deeks' desk and sits down. Deeks motions me to follow him to his desk. I go to take a seat next to Theo but Deeks pulls me towards his chair and lets me sit in it. Deeks sits on the side on his desk and says to Theo, "What are you a third year?" Theo nods. "Why do they have you running surveillance on a drug dealer you can't even read a file on?" Theo shrugs and says, "The man who would be doing surveillance can't be seen by the man I'm watching. He's alias is dead. Literally the guy killed his alias off to get out of the op," I look at Theo then to Deeks and realize Theo's talking about Deeks. Deeks killed off Austin to get out of the op not his marriage to Catherine. He left Catherine before he killed off Austin. Deeks looks at Theo and says, "Do you think you'd be able to call off the surveillance on Vargas?" Theo looks at Deeks then to his lap and says, "Vargas is a bad guy and I get sick just watching him. You want the job, you can take it." I nod to Deeks and he says, "Go…Back to the bullpen and get me all your files on Vargas. Drop them off at reception. We," Deeks points to me and then to himself. "Have to go talk to an informant in the evidence garage. Make sure it's there within twenty minutes."

Theo walked out of Deeks office and I walked up to the picture we were looking at before Theo walked in. I held it up in the air waving it at Deeks and say, "Mind if I take it." He smiles and says, "Not at all. Have it." I hand it to him and he looks confused so to clarify I say, "No pockets, no purse and no jacket. You have two out of three of those." He chuckles and puts the picture that will be joining the growing collection of pictures I have of the both of us in his jacket.

* * *

**A/N: The next chapter heats up. What do you think about the pictures? **

**Remember to review they're like cookies.**


	10. Chapter X

**KENSI POV**  
Catherine was waiting for us downstairs by the reception desk when we got down there to pick up the file. She looked angry and uncomfortable. Her eyes looked drained and red like she had been crying. I looked at Deeks and cocked my head towards Catherine and he nodded with a sad and confused look on his face. All I could think was why was she crying? Did someone say something about one of her former husbands? Catherine's obviously a strong woman, in every aspect so why was she crying? I walk up to the desk and ask the officer sitting there for the file Theo had sent down. I waved the file getting Catherine and Deeks' attention. I started walking out the door to where my car was parked. Deeks and Catherine followed.

My SRX had an orange card underneath the windshield wiper. I picked it up, read it and almost dropped dead. "Marty." I said with an obvious quiver in my voice. Deeks picked up his pace to a run. I turned to him and handed him the orange card. He froze and looking into my eyes. His showed that he didn't know what to do, calling Callen with Catherine here would surely cause more than one problem but then again not calling Callen could cause world war three. He looked at me and said "Call Nell and Eric. Tell them we're locked out of your car." I nodded and dug my phone out to call OPS while Catherine walked up to stand some feet behind us.

"Hey Eric, Deeks and I are locked out of my SRX can you help." I said calmly hoping he would figure out that I'm not really locked out of my car.

_"Uh, Kens where are you guys? What's up?"_ Eric said fast

"We're at the LAPD precinct still." I responded, only answering his first question

_"Alright, pulling up surveillance cameras now." _

"Well hurry up Eric. It's LA. I'm hot." Deeks smirked and I threw him a glare which only made his smirk grow wider.

_"Alright Kens. Got the cameras up. Wait, what's in your hand?"_

"That's kinda what I need you to do. I kinda can't get in without my keys. Can you see it?" Deeks cocked his eyebrows at me warning me that Catherine's getting suspicious so I add, "Hurry. Now."

"I can't see much Kens but I don't think it's lying, there's a bomb under your car. As for your houses I can't be sure. Do you want me to call the bomb squad?"

"No. It's fine I'll ask Catherine to go inside and see if I left them inside. Thanks Eric Deeks and I will be back soon." I turned to Deeks and said "Eric can't see my keys or open it remotely, because of when we had to hotwire it last. Do you think Catherine could look in the bullpen for me that's the last place I remember having them." Deeks nods then starts signing to Catherine. She nods and says "I'll be back soon."

"OK. What the hell? A bomb at our place, under my car and under yours I'm really getting sick of bad guys lately." Deeks laughs and says "We've got about five minutes before Catherine comes back. Care to defuse that thing?" I kneel down next to the SRX looking underneath it. The bomb's most likely got a backup circuit. I look up at him and say "Well there goes my stash of Twinkies. There's no way I can defuse it. It's gonna blow." Deeks offers his hand and I take it pulling myself up. Deeks pulled me up too and I ended up falling into his chest. I blush but quickly put all those feelings back in their respectable drawer for now. I push back and say, "Let's get out of here."

"OK. I'll call Eric and tell him that the bombs gonna blow in about two minutes."

"And tell him to send the bomb squad to our places." He nods and pulls out his phone to call OPS.

"Hey Er-Nell, Sorry I was expecting Eric." He says while shaking his head slightly. "The bomb under Kensi's car is likely to blow if she defuses it."

"Well no but I think it'd be safe to say that we don't want to find out." He seems overly agitated at Nell.

"Yeah and make sure the bomb squad is sent to our apartments." He hangs up and says, "What do you think the blast radius is going to be?" I look at my SRX and back at Deeks. "That bomb was good. Even Callen would have had trouble with it. I think we should clear the entrance just to be safe." He nods and ushers me to walk in front of him.

By the time we reach the parking lot entrance Catherine was making her way toward us. When she spots us she stops dead and asks "Why are you guys over here." Deeks looks at me and I say, "Did you find my keys?" She shakes her head. I nod and say, "There's a bomb under my SRX. It's tamper resistant No visible timer." Catherine walks over to Deeks and starts signing.

**DEEKS POV**

**_ITALICSIZED WORDS IN ASL (American Sign Language.)_**

Catherine walks up to me with fury in her eyes and determination in her stance. She says to me. _"Did she really lose her keys? Or was that just a game to make me go away." _I look at Kensi and smile while saying "We should back up." Kensi nods and backs up to the cars at the curb. I turn back to Catherine and say, _"Yes, her keys are lost. We didn't know about the bomb till after the fact. She dropped her phone and went to pick it up that's when she spotted it." _

_"The orange piece of paper then what did it say? Why'd she freak out?" _

_"It was nothing of your concern. Now stop-" _I was jolted by the blast from the bomb. Kensi fell back onto the car hitting her head on the way down. I left Catherine's side and rushed over to Kensi. When I got to her I realized that I never once did that for Catherine, I cared but I knew she could hold her own. For some reason, even though I know that Kensi could take down a man three times her size without blinking an eye.

"You ok?" I ask her with worry obviously laced in my voice.

"Yeah, I'm good, just a goose egg." She shrugs.

"Let me see it." I say not truly believing her, because she's known to knock down her injuries to far less severe than they really are.

"I'm fine. Really, I'm ok. I'll have a killer head ache but I'm fine." She smiles just a bit as she says the last part. I offer her my hand and she takes it. This time though she lets me do most of the work but somehow she still manages to find herself colliding with my chest. This time though she doesn't back away. She looks at me and says, "I wanna go home, shower, eat take out and watch a movie. But I can't, because there's probably a bomb at both our places too." I nod and get closer to her ear and say "Catherine**'**s watching," She nods and I continue "We do have our joint safe house; it's fully stocked from when our apartments were being fumigated a few months ago." She smiles and I think about our times in our safe house.

It's a two bedroom apartment about two miles away from ops but it's cozy. I'm sure if it were anyone else I'd be super annoyed that I have to share one of my safe houses. But it's Kensi; we're with each other 99% of the time. Movie nights, bar outings, walking Monty on the beach, jogging, We spend almost as much time with each other outside of work as we do while at work. Kensi and I are comfortable around each other, that's why we have a joint safe house. After a tough case one time, Hetty called us into her office and gave us a set of keys with an address on it. I looked at the keys; they were identical to the ones she gave me during the Ortega case. One or maybe both of us looked confused so she told us that all good partners should have a joint safe house. We used the safe house for two weeks after that before deciding it was best that we limit ourselves to no more than two weeks at a time unless necessary.

Our last time at the safe house lasted 7 weeks. All were necessary, our houses were being fumigated for the first 3 weeks, Kensi's pipes broke and my house got flooded. Even though we technically lived together for seven weeks, it didn't really change much. We still bicker. I still tease her and she does the same to me. One thing that did change though was sleeping arrangements. There is only one bed in the safe house and the couch is way too uncomfortable for any person taller than Hetty. The only option is to share a bed, it was awkward at first but we soon fell into a rhythm. Doing nothing but sleeping.

I'm jolted out of my thoughts when Sam and Callen arrive and ask me "Did you get the information." I nod and hand him the folder. Callen says, "Go to your safe houses, both of you. We can deal with Catherine, the information your buddies gave you on Vargas and finding out who planted the bombs."

"So there were bombs as in plural." I ask being careful not to let Catherine see my lips. She's already pacing, she doesn't need to know there's more than one bomb, they're the only thing she's afraid of.

"All diffused, they're sweeping just to make sure." Sam says. I nod and go to leave but realize that Kensi's fallen asleep in my arms. I look at Callen and Sam and say, "You may want to step back, I've gotta wake up sleeping beauty. But first how are we going to get to our houses? Kensi's car just blew up." Callen hands me two sets of keys. I nod and say, "Really though you may wanna step back." Callen nods with an obvious smirk on his face. He and Sam turn around and walk over to what's left of Kensi's SRX.

I shake Kensi arm lightly and when she opens her eyes I say, "Hey Kens, we gotta go to our safe house. Callen signed us out cars so you'll have to drive, you up to it?" She nods and grabs one of the sets of keys from my hands. She clicks the horn button to locate which car she's got and when she spots it she turns to me and smirks. I find my keys and do the same. When she turns back to me to see what I've got I just smirk back at her. Oh this is going to be a good night even if we do smell like gun powder and the LAPD precinct.

* * *

**A/N: Anyone excited to see what happens at the safe house? Or what cars they got? (Think James Bond.) **


	11. Chapter XI

**KENSI POV**

I arrived at the safe house a before Deeks, partly because I broke almost every traffic law in Las Angeles and partly because I really just want to put on my pajamas (or in this case Deeks shirt and sweatpants) and relax for the evening.

When Deeks pulls up I'm already in my pajamas and sitting on our couch. He opens the door and comes in looking just as tired as I am. I smile at him while he takes off his jacket and puts his keys next to mine on the table in the foyer. He walks over to the couch and sits down next to me. I scoot closer to him and rest my head on his shoulder. He looks at me and say quietly, "I'm gonna make dinner. Do you wanna help so you don't fall asleep before you get something to eat?" I nod and he smiles getting up from the couch taking my hand and pulling me along with him. I laugh as we walk into the kitchen; he grabs some food from the fridge and puts it on the counter.

"Hey Kens, Can you make the salad?"

"Yeah, sure I can do that. Anything specific you want?"

"Uh, nothing fancy. The vegetables are already cut up. I think Hetty knew we were going to use the safe house tonight."

"Probably," I laugh. "She knows everything." Deeks stops dead and looks at me. His face says he's hiding something again but I don't have the chance to ask because he fills in silence by saying, "She didn't know Catherine and I were married. She doesn't know what happened here last time. And she doesn't know that Catherine's deaf. Hetty knows _almost_ everything." I nod solemnly and start making the salad while thinking about the last time we were here and what happened. We don't talk about it but I know for sure that he thinks about just as much as I do. I'm woken from my thoughts when Deeks says, "Kens Kens, can you hand me the knife over there." I reach over and hand him the knife. The rest of the preparations were done in silent.

Deeks changes his course after our talk and made me my favorite dish as a peace offering for his snippiness. After dinner we cleared the table, washed the dishes and put everything away. I walked into the living room and plopped myself onto the couch and Deeks did the same. After about twenty minutes I moved closer to him resting my head on his chest. He, in return, put his arms around my waist securely. I just buried my head deeper into his chest and took in the oh-so familiar scent that can only be described as Deeks.

I was suddenly awoken by the sound of a ringing cell phone. I nearly jumped off the couch at the sound but I knew that if I did Deeks would have teasing material for months. I shake my head and move into a sitting position grabbing our cell phones from the coffee table in front of us. I look at the caller ID and see that it's Eric and Nell. I shake Deeks to wake him up and he groans, I hand him his phone and he get up and goes into the kitchen to talk to answer the phone.

"Hey Eric, what's up?" Deeks say his voice filled with sleep.

"_Hey Kens, you on the line?" _

"Yeah Eric."

"_We found Vargas', or we think we did anyways. Callen and Sam are on their way to get him now." _

"Send us the address we'll meet them there." Deeks and I say simultaneously

"_No, Hetty wants you two to stay at your safe houses until further notice. We got more bomb threats from Vargas."_

"So you confirmed it was Vargas who blew up Kensi's SRX?"

"_Not Vargas himself but one of his gang members put the bombs on your cars. Somebody else, still a gang member put the bombs at your houses." _

"Did Hetty say why were stuck in our safe house?"

"_Nope, gotta go guys. I'll keep you updated." _Eric said like he was hiding something.

"Bye." We said together.

Deeks walks into the living room and puts his phone back onto the coffee table. He grabs my hand and pulls me to the back door. "What are you doing Deeks? I'm tired. I wanna go back to sleep." He doesn't answer me he just keeps walking toward the back door. He opens it nudges me in front of him. He guides me down the stairs and then stops dead about twenty feet from the door, he sits down pulling me down with him. I lean back into him and ask "Why are we out here." He smiles and says, "Look up." I do and realize that this must be one of the few places in LA where you can see the stars. I say to him in awe, "It's beautiful. Why didn't you show me this before?" He chuckles and shrugs his shoulders. He lies down and pulls me with him. I nestle my head into his chest and look at the stars. Within five minutes I'm asleep with Deeks arms around my waist and his scent taking over all others.

* * *

When I wake up I hear a noise, the agent in me kick in and I reach for Deeks to wake him up. I look at him and realize that he has his berretta on him. I grab it; his hand touches mine as if he was going to stop me. I slowly pull myself out of Deeks' grasp without waking him. I hear the noise again and approach it with Deeks' unfamiliar berretta. When I get close enough I say in a slightly sleepy voice, "Federal Agent. Stop!" As I realize what I'm telling to stop I put down Deeks' gun and chuckle. I think I must be really paranoid to think a raccoon is a person breaking and entering.

I walk back to Deeks and shake him awake. He looks at me with sleep filled eyes, I laugh and hand him back his berretta. He looks confused so I fill in the blanks with four simple words, "I think I'm paranoid." He smiles, gets up and stretches. His tanned, muscular abs showed at the bottom of his shirt. I immediately look away, because if he caught me looking I would never hear the end of it. But I can't help myself so I sneak a little peek and think about what happen the last time I saw his abs. His body could be my weakness. No it _is _my weakness.

I start walking back inside our safe house, Deeks follows a few step behind me. I step into the kitchen of our safe house and grab a glass for water. When I finish the water Deeks is already in bed, awake but in bed. I crawl in next to him careful to keep enough space between us and say, "So far tonight I have slept on a couch, the ground, your chest and now our bed. We've gotta stop getting woken up. " Deeks grins and nods sleepily at me in agreement.

After deciding that we can't get ourselves back to sleep we put in a movie we've both seen multiple times and put it on mute creating our own dialogue. Half-way through the movie our stomachs decided that it's time for a 2am breakfast. Even though Deeks insists I eat something a little healthier in the morning I went straight for one of Deeks' homemade doughnuts that make my taste buds go nuts. Deeks' made himself eggs, two kinds of bacon and toast.

"Hey, do you have-" I'm cut off from finishing my sentence because Deeks shoves a plate of food into my face and says "Extra Bacon?" He laughs as he walks to our table. I smirk at him and silently curse him for knowing me way too well. Callen, Sam hell everyone in OPS knows that I like greasy food but only Deeks knows how I like it.

"Do you think they'll catch Vargas today?" I ask conversationally.

With his mouth full of eggs Deeks responds, "If they don't I think I know where he would go."

"Care to share?" I ask, slightly curious.

"If and when the time comes, yes." He responds easily.

* * *

**ERIC POV.  
**"NELL." I shout from the balcony hurriedly. Nell's head pops up and she runs up the stairs meeting me in front of OPS doors.

"Eric? What's wrong?" Nell says worried evident in her eyes.

"Nothing exactly but we've got a side problem." I say with a sigh.

"What kind of side problem. " She asks slightly annoyed and obviously tired out of her wits.

"Remember how Catherine told us that Vargas' gang wouldn't think twice about going after us again."

"Yeah. Who are they after now?"

"Nell…I'm sorry." I said solemnly

"Who Eric. Sam, Callen, Hetty?" She said fast and worried.

"None of those." I paused and looked at her dreading the next words I have to say, "Us. Nell, they're after us."

* * *

**A/N: I thought since all of you loved the fact that I used some of my dad's stories earlier I'd use one again. The safe house idea comes from one of the stories my dad told me. ****I wish I could tell you it now but then it would give away what's happened and what's going to happen at the Safe House. **

**Did you guys see that one coming? Neither did I. I'll be back on next week Saturday with a new chapter! **

_**Remember reviews a like cookies. They're sweet and give me a sugar high! (Or in this case a serious need to write!) **_


	12. Chapter XII

**Previously**:

**ERIC POV.**

**_ITALICSIZED WORDS IN ASL (American Sign Language.)_**

"NELL." I shout from the balcony hurriedly. Nell's head pops up and she runs up the stairs meeting me in front of OPS doors.

"Eric? What's wrong?" Nell says worried evident in her eyes.

"Nothing exactly but we've got a side problem." I say with a sigh.

"What kind of side problem. " She asks slightly annoyed and obviously tired out of her wits.

"Remember how Catherine told us that Vargas' gang wouldn't think twice about going after us again."

"Yeah, who are they after now?"

"Nell…I'm sorry." I said solemnly

"Who Eric? Sam, Callen, Hetty?" She said fast and worried.

"None of those." I paused and looked at her dreading the next words I have to say, "Us. They're after us."

* * *

Nell looks at me with tears in her eyes. It's evident she's scared but we all are. Nell and I usually aren't the targets. We're up in OPS doing what we have to, to keep the team informed. We never see the suspects in person; we never talk to them, somehow though today we have gone from the best tech-duo in OPS to techies with targets the size of Alaska on our backs. Nell breaks down crying and walks forward into my arms. When she reaches my chest she clutches my shirt like it's all she has left. I murmur comforting words into her hair, hoping she believes them more than I do.

After about 5 minutes of standing in the entrance way of OPS holding a crying Nell she pushes herself back off of my chest and walks into OPS with a fire in her step. She walks over to the chair Catherine is sleeping in and shakes her awake. As soon as she's awake and sitting up Nell starts signing fast and furiously, _"Thank you."_

"_For what, I've done nothing." _Catherine responds

"_Except put targets on our backs." _Nell responds, snippy.

"_I'm sorry you feel that I'm responsible for putting the targets on your back but it's not my fault."_

"_Not your fault. Let's go over the facts here, you married Deeks, your work with DEA brought you here, the explosion that killed your first husband is why you can't hear resulting in blown ops, you are the person you knows Vargas. Need I say more?"_

"_Nell, stop. It's OK. We'll deal." _I say in effort to stop this fight from progressing further.

"_Eric, how can you say that? She's the reason we're in all this mess." _She says fast, hands trembling making her some of her words hard to read.

"_Nell, I know that but trust me yelling at her isn't going to change anything," _I repositioned myself and Nell did the same. _"We can be angry at her but we can't turn on her it's not fair. She didn't ask for it." _Nell nods, walks out of OPS away from the eyes of Catherine and stands at the railing of the balcony.

"Hey, we'll be fine." I say trying to soothe Nell.

"You don't know that Eric. Where am I going to stay? I can't go home."

"Nell, Nell stop rambling Hetty's taken care of that." I say quietly and fast.

"Huh?" Nell asks obviously confused.

"Hetty's giving us one of her safe houses to stay in until we're safe," Nell smiles a small but promising smile. "Nothing is going to happen to you Rockstar. I promise, alright?" She nods and turns to me. She gets up on her tippy-toes bringing her to just about my chin and places a lingering kiss on my cheek when she pulls back she murmurs a soft and sweet thank you.

I walk down stairs to the bullpen and walk up to Callen. He looks up from his desk expectantly; I just grab the tablet from Kensi's vacant desk sign in and pull up everything he will need for the apprehension of Vargas that will be going down later that day. I nod at the tablet that I just placed on his desk and walk away but before I can leave he says, "Do you know something I don't?" I shake my head and continue back up to OPS and a still shaken Nell.

"Eric," I hear Callen yell when I'm only half way up the stairs. I turn around and see him with the tablet looking at me in disbelief. I sigh and walk to the lower railing and cock my head silently to the right. Callen walks up to me furry in his eyes and says, "Two of my team members are targets. Don't you think I need to know that?"

"You know that Kensi and Deeks are targets. Telling you would be redundant." I say back simply know he's talking about me and Nell not the duo already at their safe house.

"Not them. You and Nell," he pauses obviously looking at me to gauge a reaction to the news.

I shrug and say calmly with my eyes trained on the floor, "We're just the unappreciated tech-duo that you use for dirty little tasks, didn't think it'd matter."

"Eric," Callen snaps bring my eyes to meet his quickly. When he sees that he's got my attention he continues, "I'm not sure where that _very _calm outburst came from but I asked you if you knew anything I didn't. You said no."

"I thought Hetty told you. She said she was going to." I partially lie. Hetty _was_ going to tell Callen about where we were going to be tonight or rather later this morning but only after we addressed the situation with him first. That's when Hetty takes the time to show up and say, "Mr. Beale and Miss. Jones will be staying at one of my safe houses due to the intel they uncovered," She paused briefly but continued, "You are to arrest Vargas as soon as you can and when you do take Miss Fairway with you." Hetty nods firmly at us and we go to our respective places.

When I get up to OPS Nell is sitting in her chair, legs pulled up to her chest and head on top of her right knee. I go to walk over to her but she beats me to it. She slowly gets up, walks over to me and shows me directions and a set of keys. I take them from her hands without saying a word and read them. When I'm finished my mouth falls agape. The safe house we are to stay at is also the joint safe house of Kensi and Deeks.

"Nell," I whisper because I can't seem to find my voice, "Did you know about this?"

"No. Only Hetty did. I asked." Nell responds in the same tone as I did.

"Well, do they know that uh we're staying there too?" I ask, wondering if we will have to explain to them ourselves why we're showing up at their safe house.

"Yes. Hetty called them. She said that our own safe house will be ready soon but," Nell pauses and looks up to me with fear and love in her eyes, "not soon enough for this, this thing." Nell sighs and I grab her hand, lace my fingers with hers and say, "Let's get the hard part over with." She nods and we walk out of OPS in a comfortable silence.

* * *

**KENSI POV**

"I thought this was supposed to be a safe house." I say slightly annoyed that Nell and Eric have to stay with us.

"Kens, it is. That's why Hetty's sending them here. That and their safe house isn't ready yet."

"I know but this is _our_ safe house. We will have to change it after they leave and I don't want that." What I don't say is that they might find out something Deeks and I definitely don't want getting out. They could find out what happened the last time we were here, they could find out that we spend way too much time together to be _just _ partners or worse they could discover that I, Kensi Marie Blye, am hopelessly head over heels for my partner but don't have the courage to tell him. My thoughts are jostled, because the doorbell rings. I look to Deeks, he grins sadly and says "Let the fun begin."

I follow behind Deeks watching him check twice to make sure it really is Eric and Nell. I smile to myself, because he really does care about his security now, he has beefed it up. Sam might be proud, I know I am. Eric and Nell are holding hands when Deeks opens the door. Nell's head is on Eric's chest and she's turned into him obviously scared. Deeks looks down at Nell and back up to Eric and says, "I'm so sorry you two got dragged into this, you don't deserve it." At that Nell's head snaps up and she says, "This. Is. Not. Your. Fault." Deeks goes to respond, defend his apology but I stop him by saying, "Come on in. We will show you where you'll be staying and the rest of the house." Eric nods and mouths sorry to both me and Deeks, we just smile and nod.

"It's pretty basic, nothing special but you'll be staying in the basement. It's finished so you won't have to worry about any creepy critters." Deeks says while showing them the door to the basement.

"Down there is everything you need. It's the same size as the house and is laid out pretty similar. Hetty decorated it so keep that in mind." I say.

Deeks points and says, "Down there is our bedroom, the bathroom and the office," Deeks points in the oppiste direction toward the kitchen and backyard and says, "That way is the kitchen and the backyard. I usually cook dinner at around five so if you don't feel like cooking you're welcomed to join us."

I nod and add, "As for safety, don't open the door without checking who it is and never tell Callen or Sam the address of this place." The last part is only necessary if we want to work in peace without mocking or death threats respectably. They both nod and Deeks says, "We're going to the beach," I look at Deeks and quickly hide my shock but nod while he continues, "Stay here, get acquainted with the place and make sure under no circumstances do you leave without telling us." We aren't on protection detail but I was thinking the same thing. If they do something totally stupid and get themselves injured or killed it's on our heads.

We walk away from Eric and Nell. I start packing while Deeks starts changing into beach appropriate clothing. After he's done we change roles, something we've perfected over the time we've been living here. When we're done we walk out and wave to Eric and Nell who are watching TV in the living room, the basement doesn't have one so I don't mind and I know Deeks doesn't either.

We get to the beach and Deeks looks at me and says, "This is going to get sticky." I know exactly what he's talking about and why he sprung this beach adventure on me so I just nod and sit down on the warm sand and watch the waves roll in. It's such a beautiful sight that I hope the memories I associate are just as beautiful.

"Kens," He whispers, it sends a shivers down my spine. I turn to face him, my legs turn to jelly and I thank God that I'm already sitting down.

"Marty," I whisper back. He takes my left hand and pulls me onto his lap. He starts whispering nothings into my ear and I push myself a few inches away when I hear the words I've wanted to hear for months now. I nod and whisper back just what he wants to hear. He pulls me into a searing kiss and I respond with just as much passion and love.

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**A/N: Sorry for the delay but I've been out of the country so I've had limited computer time. **

**A _HUGE_ Thank You to secretxlittlexdarling, your review got my creative juices flowing again. Yep. The safe house bit actually fit after I rewrote the chapter about 1524456 times. Thank you again. **

**No! I will not tell you what Deeks said but you can guess and I can play the hot/cold game with you. (Ex: Are they together now? My response would be, HOT. Also meaning Yes.) **

**Remember Review are like cookies. (Oh and if you've review consecutive chapters I give you a preview!) **

**xx-Jenn. **


	13. Chapter XIII

**Catherine POV**

I get up from my chair in OPS and walk down stairs to the bullpen. Callen's sitting at his desk; I tap my hand on it and say "We need to talk. Now." He nods and says something along the lines of "I'm listening." I can't really tell exactly what he says because of the way his face is turned downward toward the very hefty file he is focused on. I know that we can't do this here so I start thinking of a way to get him out of the bullpen without raising suspicion but as I look around OPS I realized that there is in face no one here, just Hetty, Callen and I.

"Callen, please. I want to talk to you not your hair." I say in a quietly, a few notches above a whisper but still too low to be considered actually talking.

Callen laughs just as quiet as the words I just said but puts the pen down he was using to guide his obviously tired eyes through the bulky file and looks up at me showing that I've got his undivided attention.

"What I told you earlier is only partly true," I pause and gauge his reaction. His stance doesn't change but his eyes do they grow cold , yet soft at the same time. "I told you the approved version. The one I _can _tell but you need to know everything in order for the capturing of Vargas to work fully." He looks at me and nods but stands up motioning toward the back of OPS, the office I spent 18 months in is just next to the room where the burning of secured files takes place. I pause at the door he's walking into but can't walk in. I don't trust my voice because the lump that's in my throat is large enough to be the size of Alaska so I knock on the wall and Callen turns around quickly not expecting me to do something like that. I just shake my head, pull out the key to the office next door, show it to him and motion him to follow me.

When I put the key into the slot I'm praying it still works and that this office is not occupied still. When the latch unlocks I breathe a sigh of partial relief. The door still weighed a ton and to complete my sigh of relief it looks nobody has touched this office since I left years ago. I smile inwardly at Hetty and her sentimental values sometimes. After a quick scan of the room I find the only thing I've missed from my previous life, the necklace my partner gave me. A simple key with the words "The key to your home." engraved onto the back partnering the tattoo on my wrist that he also had that reads, "Dear, I'll come home." I walk over to it and pick it up basking in the memory and turn to Callen who I see watching me curiously. I decided to play with the necklace a bit but I invite Callen to sit on the couch with me, because I think telling him everything I have to will be easier sitting down.

"You've got questions. I've got answers. But in order for this to work completely you need to remember what it's like to be a part of the Agency." After Callen nods I decide that if I'm going to do this I'll have to explain things from the beginning.

"When I was 17 I was approached by a woman by the name of Angel Marquee, CIA. She said that she'd noticed my acting out and claimed that I'd make a very good operative. In, of course less blunt terms, but still the same idea. I accepted her offer and within 15 months I was in Malaysia on a mission with a name I couldn't even pronounce. During that mission I met a man by the name of Nick Fairway," Callen's eyebrows furrowed at the mention of my last name but I ignore him for now. My hands clench around the necklace tighter and I close my eyes while I continue to explain my messy life. "He was one of the operatives already on the ground by the time I got there. He became my mentor, taught me the tricks of the trade so to speak. After about 4 months of this dead end mission he asked me out on date and I accepted. Four months later we were married and my last named changed to Fairway." Callen's eyes showed recognition so I knew I could continue. "After that mission we were both sent to Germany to do some surveillance," I pause knowing that what I was going to say next would be the game changer of this whole operation. "Nick and I entered the building but there was a trigger plate in the floor and he didn't make it out."

"You saw your husband die." Callen asks solemnly

"That's just the tip of the iceberg Callen. Being so close to the explosion my ear drums got ruptured and I went deaf. When I got back to the states the doctors said that it would just be temporary but Callen, it wasn't. I still to this day can't heat a thing. Callen, do you understand what I'm saying."

"You're trying to tell me you're deaf?" He asks

"Yes, I'm telling you I'm deaf. To answer your next questions; I read lips well, no the CIA doesn't know and yes Deeks does know but does Eric, Nell and Kensi I asked them not to tell you, Sam or Hetty. I said I'd handle it and I will. I did," Callen looks at me annoyed but lets me continue. "As for when we go to apprehend Vargas you can't act like I've told you. Act like you didn't know," Callen goes to cut in and tell me what I'm doing is irresponsible but I've done this for years that I know just how to shut him up, "I'm not having you pull me off this just because you think I'm incapable of doing a simple apprehension. I've done harder, much more complex things and on top of it all I've never gotten anyone killed. How many deaf agents can say that?" The last part makes my heart clench but I know what that is what I signed up for and it's my problem if I can't accept it. As for Callen he just shakes his head and says, "You know what you're doing. I can't stop you; you're not under my control. Just know that I will in fact be in charge at the time of the apprehension, OK?" I nod hoping that everything falls together nicely.

Just as we're about to leave a knock on the door makes Callen's head pop up and motion his hand to the door with a knocking motion. I nod and walk toward the door to find Hetty and Sam standing there both with an urgent look on their face. Hetty's the first one who talks and she say, "Vargas is on the move. Go to the warehouse that's where he seems to be heading." Sam pipes in next and says gruffly, "We need to get this guy now." I look back to Callen who nods and I say, "Let's get this guy."

* * *

The warehouse looks empty and I know that this seems just a little too clean until I see a shadow in the far window. I hit Sam's shoulder and point to the window and he nods toward Callen who in return says to the both of us, "It looks like there's about three people in there. We good?" I nod, readjust my weapon and look at Sam who's already off into banter with Callen about who's going to have more swagger during this. All I can think is that I know it won't be either of them because the show I'm about to put on is going to be worth a life.

The door is locked so Callen signals Sam to shoot the lock off and then starts counting from three. When we enter the first thing I notice is that there is the distinctive smell of turpentine I close my eyes briefly and try not to think about the explosion in Germany. After clearing the right side silently, we all walk over to the left side of the warehouse where there happens to be an enclosed room. Standing in the room is Vargas, his body guard/thug and a very prestigious client who has just what I need in his hands, whiskey and a very big sniper rifle. I turn to Callen and Sam and point to the door. Callen walks over and tells Sam and I to position ourselves accordingly to what he's about to do. I watch Sam step to Callen's right so I do the same. Callen shoots down the already opened door and Vargas and the other two stand in shock for a millisecond. Sam and I walk in. Sam takes the buyer on and puts three in his heart. While Sam is taking the buyer Callen takes the body guard who is very skilled and gets Callen unarmed. Callen lunges forward and the body guard put's one bullet into Callen's knee. After Sam kills the buyer he sees Callen on the floor fighting the man so he puts a bullet in the man's forehead and starts to help Callen's leg.

I see my opening when Callen is taking on the body guard; I'm positioned in front of Vargas so I walk up to him. He looks at me then realizes that I dropped my weapon when Callen and Sam started taking on the others. Vargas didn't even think about what to say he just looked at me squarely and in a very thick accent he says, "I never thought I'd see you again." I laugh but say nothing, I go to turn him around, put him in cuffs and take him out of here unarmed but he's one step quicker and the next thing I know a very sharp pain in my chest is present and I'm stumbling toward the ground. With blurry vision I see Callen shoot Vargas from his position on the floor and Sam runs over to me and starts saying something to me but I can't quite make it out all I know is I have to say something back. So I say what they'll need to know to fully understand me, "There's a letter on the Briggs' bed. Read it. Please." Next I think that I'll finally be with my true husband again because I can see Sam saying, "Stay with me. Catherine, don't die." Over and over again.

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**A/N: Anyone care to guess what will happen next? **

**Remember reviews are amazing. **

**-Jenn.**

_Schedule for October will be out soon! _


	14. Chapter XIV

**KENSI POV**

We get to the beach and Deeks looks at me and says, "This is going to get sticky." I know exactly what he's talking about and why he sprung this beach adventure on me so I just nod and sit down on the warm sand and watch the waves roll in. It's such a beautiful sight that I hope the memories I associate are just as beautiful.

"Kens," He whispers, it sends a shivers down my spine. I turn to face him, my legs turn to jelly and I thank God that I'm already sitting down.

"Marty," I whisper back. He takes my left hand and pulls me onto his lap. The words he says next make me grateful that it's impossible to turn into a pile of jelly, "Kensi, you're beautiful." As cheesy as it sounds, hearing him say it is the best thing in the world. Most guys only tell me I'm hot, pretty or worse cute. Not that I don't find those ego-boosting it just that I would rather have a guy call me something a little less juvenile. He says a few more nothings into my ear but the only one I really heard was the first one and my mind became lost in a sea of thoughts.

I look at him and realize he's started talking in full sentences again while I was off in my own little world. "Kens, that night at our safe house," I freeze dreading what's certain to come next but I don't stop him, I can't stop him. "I meant what I said before what happened, happened. I do love you and I'm not trying to be super gushy here so I'm going to tell you again and ask the same question I did that night." I nod, knowing now that my answer had changed and I had no reason to stop him this time. "Kensi Marie Blye, I love you. Now even though this sounds like a proposal it's not. I just you and me together and we can figure everything else out later when it's needed. Kens, I love you. Say yes," He stops and stares at me for a minute and then says, "Say anything." I'm nodding my head but he seems to want the words so I say all that I can form, "I'm saying yes. Can't you tell?" I don't get an answer, because before I finished the last word he pulls me into a searing kiss and I respond with just as much passion and love that he's giving me.

After a heated make-out session I make him stop. I tell him that there is no way I'm doing that on a beach. He laughs at me but agrees that we should wait a while longer because we both know what could happen if we jump in head first without testing these uncharted waters. After we eat a little snack one of us packed, he goes surfing and I just smile while I shamelessly watch the way his body moves through the water like it's one with the water and nothing else exists. When he's done we both decide that my sweet tooth could use some taming and he takes off to get ice cream while I take a quick swim.

During my swim my mind drifts to the future, I start thinking about what it would be like to be married to Deeks. I wonder what it would be like to have a happy ending. Although all of that certainly scares me something about the way Deeks acts puts me at ease. He doesn't mind if I dictate the pace as long the ball's in my court. I get out of the water when I see Deeks starting to come back to our towels with our ice cream.

I never used to think a day at the beach could be so mesmerizing but today certainly changed my mind. I went from spending a day worrying about Nell and Eric to enjoying a day with a man I truly love. I walk up to Deeks who has our ice cream in his hands and wrap my hands around his very strong bicep, pulling myself close him. He looks over to me smiles and hands me my chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles. I smile and say sweetly "Thank you." He nods and smiles back at me with a mouthful of vanilla ice cream. I giggle and he kisses the top of my forehead before saying, "We should get back. Eric and Nell are probably worried, or worse bored." I laugh but still agree and start to walk back to where our beach towels are. I grab our bags and hand Deeks his phone while grabbing mine. He stops me when he checks the phone and sees that there's 54 missed calls, some from Eric and Nell, some from Sam and Callen but the most are from Hetty. He panics and I quickly grab my phone and see that I have 50 missed calls in the same variation as Deeks. Deeks calls Hetty back and puts her on speaker phone.

"Mr. Deeks, Miss Blye you're needed back at OPS. Something has happened."

"What Hetty?" I say, too shaken to form any other words.

"What happened? Is everything OK?" Deeks chimes in next.

"I'll inform you both when you get back here." Then the line went blank. Deeks and I quickly pick up our stuff and make a dash for the Aston Martin we brought here. He hands me the keys and I break almost every traffic law for the second time this week while navigating to or from OPS. My hands are shaking but Deeks grabs one and says nothing, knowing that he can't promise me anything even though I know he'd promise me the world if it would make me feel better.

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**A/N: Don't forget that reviews are the sweetest thing in the world. Thank you for you support, remember to check my profile for update dates! **

**I hope I've answered almost all the burning questions you've had so far. If not let me know, I may be able to clarify. **

**-Jenn**


	15. Chapter XV

**A/N: This is the last chapter in this story but read the bottom for more info on the sequel. **

* * *

**Kensi POV**

When we get there everyone but Callen and Catherine are standing in OPS center. Deeks looks at Hetty and goes to say something but she motions for Eric and Nell to pull something up on the screen. It's a video, specifically of the take down of Vargas. I watch it and realized that they cleared the right side of the warehouse silently but still routinely. The left side of the warehouse was where things got interesting. When they entered the room to where Vargas was Catherine put her weapon down while Sam and Callen fought off the other two. I see Callen get shot in the leg by a man who looked to be the body guard of Vargas and Sam shot both the man he was dealing with Vargas after he tried to lunge at Callen again. But what really shocks me is that Catherine walks unarmed up to Vargas and says nothing. She reaches her hand to the back of her waistband where her handcuffs are but Vargas pulls out a gun and fires into her chest.

I look over to Deeks, he's holding his chest in a shocked sort of way. Hetty doesn't say a word and neither does anyone else, because the video's not over yet. Catherine looks to Sam and says with her last breath, "There's a letter on the Briggs' bed. Read it. Please." Then the video ends and Deeks looks at Hetty and says with an obvious quiver in his voice, "Dead?" Hetty looks at Deeks and says, "Miss Fairway passed away at 5:37 pm today, I'm sorry Mister Deeks. I grab Deeks' arm lightly and ask the stupidest question ever in a situation like this, "You alright?" He nods and I want to slap myself silly but I know that sooner or later he'll tell me what's going on in his mind. He grabs my arm and pulls me closer hugging me in a tight air constricting hug but doesn't change his focus off of Hetty. Next he says, "Callen?"

"I'm right here. Deeks," Callen's disposition changes as he says the next words, "I'm sorry." Callen says as he walks through the doors of OPS. He's got a bandage around his leg and judging by the fact he's lacking a large limp, I'd say it's just a flesh wound. Deeks nods at Callen in a thanks type of nod and then asks quietly, "The letter?" Sam then holds up a package labeled _To: Henrietta Lange's Elite Team; Callen, Sam, Kensi, Deeks, Eric, Nell and Of Course Henrietta. _

Nobody speaks for a short moment we all just stare at the package. Callen's the first to speak, "Should we read this now?" We all nod and Hetty takes the package out of Sam's hand. She opens it and puts the contents on the table and everyone steps toward it. I grab the letter and show Hetty and Deeks who both nod. I take it as permission to open it. When I take the letter out I smile at the way Catherine wrote the names, she's barely knew us and she could tell what was happening behind the scenes.

I begin to read the letter out loud so that everyone can hear me, _"_Henrietta and your team, Thank you all for helping me trying to bring Vargas to justice. He was a bad man who needed to be stopped once and for all. All of you know some part of my story. This is the version I wish I could tell everyone when I met them but unfortunately the word classified describes most of my life." I pause looking at the rest of the group. I see that they're interested in what she has to say so I continue reading. "My name is Catherine Parker, my story starts when I was 17; I was approached by a woman by the name of Angela "Angel" Marquee, CIA. She said that I'd make a very good operative. I accepted her offer and in over a year I was in Malaysia on my first mission. During that first mission I met a man by the name of Nick Fairway; he was one of the operatives already on the mission. He became my mentor, my best friend and my lover. He taught me what the farm couldn't; he showed me that true love really did exist. Four months after our first date we were married. After that mission we worked a total of 31 missions together. Our 31st mission sent us both sent to Germany to do some surveillance. All was fine and dandy until Nick and I entered the building where we were supposed to set up. There was a trigger plate in the floor that was tripped when we walked into the building. I watched for about 30 seconds as the love of my life was killed by a percussion grenade in front of my eyes." I gasp and drop the paper when I finish reading the last sentence. Putting the pieces together I guess that the reason she went deaf is because she was too close to the explosion.

Deeks picks up the piece of paper and continues from where I left off, "I suffered shrapnel wounds and due to how close I was to the bomb I went deaf. After that I spent the next 10 years working as a liaison trying as hard as I could to get away from the CIA without actually leaving. Somewhere along those ten years I spent 18 months working with Henrietta at NCIS." Deeks pauses and looks at Hetty who nods solemnly. Deeks picks back up speeding his pace up just a bit, "I'm thankful for those 18 months, because without them I wouldn't have been able to bring Vargas to justice. I wouldn't have been able to tell you all something you each need to be told. (And also I know that if you're reading this he did in fact get brought to justice.)" Deeks stops, looks at Callen and say's "She'd thank you for killing him." Callen nods and reaches his hand out to receive the letter.

He takes the letter and reads the last part of letter, "Henrietta, I'm sorry I never told you. Well not when I should have at least. I told you when it was too late to save those agents from the pain they went through. They didn't deserve it and if you ever see them again give them a kiss for me. I know you had your suspicions but I also know that you just chalked my behavior as a coping mechanism for what happened in Germany. Yes, I know you knew about that. I have to say I never could keep anything, even emotions hidden from you, could I? But I knew if I told you you'd do what every other agency except the CIA would have done, desk locked me. I'm about as useful at a desk as any agent on your team. It comes with the territory of being an agent, fueled by the thrill and adrenaline of a mission." Callen pauses and hands the letter to Hetty who doesn't even think about it just starts reading where Callen left off.

"I wish I could tell you all this in person but if you're reading this it's obvious I can't. So here is what I need you to do, take my advice, as a girl whose lived through everything she's never meant to and as someone who is no longer there to say this in person. My last wish is that you each take this piece of advice and use it." Hetty pauses and looks around the room. Shee smiles to us all and continues reading the last of Catherine's fairway letter. "Hetty: I couldn't even begin to give you advice, because you're the one (besides Nick ) whose taught me the most. Thank you. I would have given up years ago if I hadn't met you. You taught me so much. Marty: Yes I used your first name; you have it for a reason! Ask her, she'll say yes. She already loves you. You know that so why not make it official?" I smile at that and think, he already did Catherine. Thank you. "Kensi: Even though I've only known you for a few days I want to tell you this, he's not going to crush you. He's the gentlest person I've ever met. Take the leap of faith, you'll be happy. Trust me. Eric: Please for the love of god and all things good tell her you love her. She deserves it. Sam: If telling your wife what you do scares you, that's a good thing. It means you care about her. If you do tell her though remember what I just said. She will not approve of you hiding something from her but let her know that if you didn't the possibility of your work coming home is greater than not. Callen: We met once awhile back, we were in Russia. I always wondered where you were after that very clandestine meeting. I thought you were a man of mystery; little did I know you were a man of mystery to everyone including yourself. When you find a woman you love, let her know that. It'll make both of you better people." Hetty stops and looks at us and reads the last line, "With the utmost love, Catherine Parker-Fairway. See you all in the far away future."

Deeks eases up on the monster hug he's giving me but he doesn't let go. He's mumbling incoherently and I don't know what to do so I just stand there holding him, comforting him and hoping that its' helping, because the way he's acting is scaring me. This isn't Deeks. This isn't the man I fell in love with and this is not the man I would marry at the drop of a hat. Hetty interups all our thought by saying, "I don't need to see any of you here until Wednesday of next week. The funeral will be on Sunday. Miss. Blye," I pop my head around so I can properly see Hetty and nod. Hetty continues, "Take Mister Deeks home. He is in no condition to drive. Stay with him as well Miss Blye." I nod again and watch as Hetty leaves OPS.

"Deeks, I know that all of this is a shock but we've got to go home you need some rest and so do I." He doesn't move so I continue, "You're scaring me, please. Can we go." He nods and we walk out the door to OPS silently. We pass the bullpen and I see that the only person left is Callen, his head is buried in his work he doesn't acknowledge us but I know he knows that we're leaving.

The drive home is silent. I drive us to his house, partly because it's closer but mostly because my house looks ten times worse than it usually does. He hands me his key with shaky hands but I just shake my head and grab the one he gave me awhile back. We walk in and he sits down on the couch motioning me to join him. I do and he sets off into this huge explanation of how American Sign Language came about. I smile as I realize that this is how he's going to get over Catherine's death. Next he starts talking about how he learned to sign and starts teaching me the same way. As it reaches later into the night, I'm no longer worried about my partner. I'm enjoying our time together, because we never know when it may be over. I smile when Deeks says, "Let's go to be. Tomorrow we're showing Eric and Nell your newly acquired skill."

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**A/N: I started writing the sequel already, it features Eric, Nell, Kensi and Deeks going undercover together. It will be out on October 7th. Thank you for following,favorite-ing and reviewing. Don't forget to review this chapter and I will give you a sneak peak into the sequel! **

**-Jenn.**


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